The solo project of Bristol-based artist Christelle Atenstaedt, Orryx’s ethereal pull is undeniable, the guitar-scapes of her earlier EP now enriched with beats and keyboard kinetics, and of course that beguiling voice which glues the package together.
The sombre sonics of “Eldritch” are adsorbing, sumptuous — a brooding opulence which draws you in on a weaving reverb-cushioned voice. A nocturned nightingale vaporising on this velvety synth-line overcome in clapping percussives and a pulsing impetus, cinematically scorched in waspy accelerants.
An incredible opener that steals your breath clean away, for the following “Au” to clinch a backward-clipped afterglow, its hypno-couture polyphonically intertwined in tapering mantras, the type I only thought Lisa Gerrard could conjure, dimensionally dicing a strange banquet of electronics and rippling echoes. An ethereal allure that could have easily been included within 4AD’s iconic This Mortal Coil series, seductively rising into the EP’s centrepiece, “Ifera”, its trapezing shapes and aperturing ache a black-clad iridescence cresting to this thirsty euphoric, twinned to a vocal that seems plucked from some otherworldly realm — fragranced, heady, metaphorically melting into some syringed sunshine. Phantomised perspectives slapped into by a seismic wow, filling your head with a mercurial sheen.A richness that basks in sharp relief to the dronal solemnity of “Gliese 581”, a butterflying bucolic replete with wordless ghosts, its warming generosity of crystallised forms and harp-like glints scimitaring this daggering density of synthy sci-fi suddenly dropped into an infinite silence like a clattering coin.
A reflective span overtaken by a glitterati filled redux of the title track courtesy of “Fever 103°”, a Berlinesque burn that pleases on so many levels. Another of this year’s highlights for sure.-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
